Kingdom to Die For
by Wolfs Winter
Summary: The untold stories of Burmecian footsoldiers during the war with Alexandria, and the struggles afterward. Rated for graphic violence and language.
1. Prelude

Prelude

Remembrances of Silence

One raindrop fell from the heavens on to a slate that covered the top of a house. like a dream clashing against the impenetrable barricades of reality. One drop of rain that may have one day became an ocean, had it not had been for reality. For the realty was that it, just like the slate that it broke upon, was just another brick in the wall of time. Or was it?

Water formed into the shape of a drop at the edge of the slate. Assisted by it's brothers it gains enough weight to fall from the slate into a cold, ally filled with nothing but the thought's of one man, one soldier.

"I don't know how, nor why things went this way. I always saw myself getting married or living peacefully by now, but things didn't turn out the way they should have. So here I sit, waiting for Alexandra to attack the city of Burmecia through the North Gate and Gizamalke's Grotto. We had no way of knowing that they'd come. There was no warning at all. Yet, I doubt Alexandria knows who their dealing with. When they invaded us, then they're dealing with Limblum too, and then there's no way that they can win a war with both Burmecia and Limblum. 'I'd doubt that they'd even make it to the city.' That's what I kept telling myself as I ran from the fight to bring news of this to the king. I kept saying 'They'd fall at the gate.'"

A drop of rain fell on Roy's snout followed by a lose slate that fell right to his side barely missing his tail, causing him to lose concentration. He shook his head and looked around, he was in a dark alley, the one he thought was the darkest in all the city, he didn't like it there even without the explosions going on outside. He gripped his berdiche to assure himself, and continued to survey his surroundings. Around him were more of his fellow soldiers, fifteen of them, a few he knew. Henry, the tall guy, usually kept to himself. No one really knew him very well, and he liked it that way. Jason, all his time on the force all he ever talked about was fighting. Always wanting to fight with someone or something. He always complaining about it being so boring with no war going on and how he wished something interesting would happen. Apparently his wish came true. Wasn't he supposed to be married this weekend? Quinn, always strength training, trying to pick up chicks. Looks like all those days spent on the training grounds are paying off in more ways than one. Denis, always reading books and trying to cram more into that brain of his. He was probably the smartest person Roy had ever meet. Link, probably the most social person Roy had ever meet. Never stopped talking. And finally Sergeant Benson, god what a prick. Roy had been trained by this jerk his entire military carrier and he had never given Roy a single god damn brake in Roy's memory, and now he was in his hands, the one time when things were at it's worst. Why the hell did he have to die under this bastard? Why not Freya, or another of the dragon knights? Where the hell were the dragon knights? Where the hell were they! The one time Burmecia needed them and the two greatest dragon knights of all, Freya Crescent and Fratley Iron-tail were nowhere to be found! Had the gods abandoned them! Had something gone wrong and the gods hated him and all other Burmecians because of it! Roy closed his eyes. 'Was it all just a dream?' he thought, 'Please let this be a dream, let me just wake up and have all this go away.' But it was no dream, Alexandria had attacked them and he was fighting for Burmecia. Roy had been in combat before, police work mostly, but not like this. He had never seen someone get cooked in front of very eyes before, he had never seen someone crawling for their bottom half of their body before, he hadn't seen someone crying for help with their intestines spilling from their stomach, he hadn't even killed anyone before. Not until yesterday at least, when the North Gate fell. Roy cringed and shut out the memory of last night, the blood, the bodies, the dieing, the killing, the pain, the screaming, Kip's head being blown off right before his eyes. At the memory of Kip, Roy felt his stomach lurched. It wasn't everyday one of your oldest friends died. He felt nausea grip him as he clasped his hand over his mouth.

"Hay! You alright?" Jason asked.

"Quiet!" Benson hissed, "They'll hear you."

Roy's stomach eventually returned to it's place and settled down. 'Last night,' he thought 'Oh god, last night.'


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dawn of Killing

Sunrays fell from the heavens and were graciously accepted by all who were touched by them. Being out of the depressing rain and the troublesome mist did great things for the moral of guards at the North Gate who's job's seemed so boring and pointless. The soft light smiled down at them as a kind god smiles a warm, fatherly smile upon his faithful who have just found their way to his heaven. Such loving light shown down upon the barracks, in a window, and onto a small bottom bunk where a burmecian slept in a deep slumber, undisturbed even by the sun's face. A loud bell toned a fairly high-pitched ring that the time had once again come, where there was to be a change in the guards. The Burmecian didn't seem to take any notice of this, and continued his odyssey of sleeping. Then rather abruptly another figure dropped from the top bunk and landed on the ground right in front of the lower bed. This figure was dressed in a guard's uniform of many shades and variations of the color blue. He had soft green eyes, and a warm friendly face as he looked down humorously at his sleeping bunkmate. The rat chuckled to himself as he reached over and grabbed the blankets on his roommate's bed. With a violent pull he stripped the entire bed of it's toppings reveling that the sleeping Burmecian was completely naked.

"Ay Roy! Wake up!" the burmecian called to his companion playfully tossing a pillow at him.

The pillow nailed Roy right in the head, and caused him to scramble in place. His senses engulfed in a fit of instincts, and panic.

"It's our duty, mate! Time to go and keep the border secure!" the burmecian said cheerily to his bunkmate.

Roy looked around blurrily and realized that he had overslept. "What time is it?" Roy asked groggily.

"Oh, bout thirty after eleven I'd say." his jovial roommate replied.

"Your awful cheery today Steve." Roy said his eyes still half open.

"Yah! It's like, I just have this feeling that everything's going to turn out great today. And look outside! Could the day be anymore perfect?" Steve asked, "Well, you'd better put some damn cloths on if you intend on going to guard duty. Come out naked, and I'll put money on the chances of captain kicking your ass."

"Yah yah, I'll be right with you." Roy replied.

"Well I'll meet you outside for role call." Steve said opening the large wood door.

He quickly vanished from sight, closing the door on his way out with a large, deep creaking noise followed by a close. Roy got up and yawned stretching out to his full extension. He was about six foot eleven, and had storm gray fur with a full head of shaggy red hair. His face was relaxed yet not round or lopsided, and his eyes were a darker blue color that seemed to go very deep as if reaching into his soul. He was, at least to a Burmecian, a moderately attractive but not necessarily dashing character. His eye lids were half shut and all the details of the room seemed to blur together. How long had he slept? He couldn't remember. At least, ten or so hours. He walked over to a chest that was located at the foot of his bed and opened it. Inside was all his personal belongings, which wasn't much. Mostly cloths and parts of his uniform, with the occasional trinket from his past. Most of those were just old memoirs ranging from souvenirs to gifts that were given to him by his friends and family. On top of the mock-orderly pile was a pair of thigh guards and a very baggy bluish turquoise shirt with matching pants, his uniform. Roy sighed in submissive recognition as he reached for his outfit. It took him a little over a minuet to don the whole uniform excluding the helmet. He absentmindedly caught a glimpse of outside as he picked up his guard's helmet. The sun was already quickly eliminating the shadows in the room. Roy's tail straightened in a wave of realization at the sudden apprehension that he was running late. Hastily he strapped on his helmet and shot out the door like he was being chased by a thousand starving, rabid Baldersnatches. He darted down the stairway and ran thru the main armory, passing a few people he knew on the way, Denis and Link. Denis was reading while Link was ranting on about how inconvenient the hours of duty were. Roy paid little attention to them and dashed past them.

"Oh, hay there Roy!" Link called after Roy.

"Got to go!" Roy replied quickly not turning around to face Link.

He kept running paying little attention to anything but navigating his way to the outside for roll call. He sprinted out the door onto the dirt road leading to the great gate that bridged the Alexandrian Territory to the Burmecian Kingdom.

"Your late," the man next to him whispered.

It was his old friend Kip. Kip and Roy had known each other from the days in school, when Roy still wanted to be a carpenter like his father, and Kip wanted to be an adventurer and see the world. They stood at the end of the roll call and stood at attention while the captain of the outpost called their names.

"Roy Steelpaw?" he yelled.

"Ready to serve!" Roy shouted in response saluting.

"Kimberly Ferdinand?" the captain yelled.

"My life for Burmecia!" Kip replied saluting his captain.

"That's a new one." Roy muttered to his friend.

"Just trying it on." Kip muttered a half muffled replied.

"You know your duty. Patrol the area, and protect the border from miscreants. Dismissed!" the captain concluded.

The guard duty required about eleven soldiers a shift, two up front, four in the portcullis, and the rest patrolling the rest of the checkpoint. yet for unknown reasons Burmecia had sent a miniature army to defend the gate. Alexandria took guard of this gatehouse every alternate year, this year was Burmecian's turn to hold the position, but even so the other kingdom usually had an agent of some kind there to act as a lobbyist. Alexandria's lobbyist had fallen ill with the fersel mumps and was sent home to recover, leaving the gateway entirely under Burmecian control. The shift marched up to their various positions. Roy had the duty of patrol, the least boring, but most tiring, as did Steve, and Kip, but their areas were entirely different than his.

"God this is so boring." one of the front guards said looking out over the same old Alexandria.

"Hay look on the bright side, the benefits package that comes with being in the military is pretty good. And at least your not living under the constant threat of being killed like we would have been if we were at war." the other replied trying to sound optimistic.

"Yah, but. Guard duty? It's so damn boring. Nothing interesting ever happens. There are just the trade caravans, the travelers, and the occasional drunk guy or hooligan who try to pick fight with us." the first complained.

"What? Drunks and hooligans not enough to keep you satisfied?" the second laughed.

"I've had more fun in a school house, during a lecture." the other said exasperatingly. "

"Well some lectures are interesting." the other reasoned in a educated tone.

"It was about the pentagram and the many ways can be used in geometry." the first explained, "And it lasted for over an hour."

"Ouch." the second replied submissively.

Many hours had passed and Roy found himself in a room the he had patrolled at least two hundred times. It was the seventh room he passed thru each circuit. It wasn't a lounge, it wasn't a storage area, it wasn't an armory, it was a conference hall. Yet there was something special about this conference hall, and that was that is was so mind-bogglingly dull and meaningless. It hadn't been used for over five years and even then it served a very small purpose. It's last use was a small place that an Alexandrian guard used to hide candy and pastries so she could eat them at her own leisure without the captain's knowledge. That had been it's first and only real use. Roy felt a wave of boredom flood his mind. Nothing had happened over the past month and he longed for anything to come by and amuse him.

The almost perfect day had turned out to be substantially boring, but still the sun was shining down on the Burmecian land like a sun god upon a great festival. At the front gate one of the guards had fallen asleep leaning on the wall and the other was drawing small battling figures in the dirt with the end of his halberd. As he stood there his mind lost in deep thought as he came up with different stories about the characters he had just created suddenly something had instantaneously reflected light into his eyes. His train of thought was obliterated and his head shot up in the direction of the light.

'_What the?_' he thought.

He looked over to his companion who was snoozing soundly.

"Hay, wake up." he hissed at his partner throwing a small clod of dirt at him.

The dirt hit his nose and crumbled, leaving him with a somewhat dirty snout. He halfway opened his eyes and shook his head, removing the earth from his nose.

"What?" he asked drowsily a look of annoyance in his sleepy eyes.

"Did you see that?" the other asked in a worried tone.

The other yawned and simply replied, "No." He blurrily looked up at his fellow guard and smiling he asked, "What did I miss?"

The other looked over the Alexandrian landscape for any sign of life, but found it to be deserted. "I don't know." he replied.

"Well, that's just great. I'm impressed, your so bored you've even tricked yourself into thinking that something's happening." the other laughed straightening up.

The other took no heed of his comrades words and scanned the horizon again. Everything was still, almost as if everything was meant to be still. It was the kind of anxious still that made one wish that something, anything would move so that everything wouldn't be so damn still. It was too still, far far too still.

"Be on you guard, something doesn't feel right." the guard growled soberly.

The other laughed, "Yah, I'll tell you what doesn't feel right. The fact that I haven't be slept with my woman for over a month now."

He glanced over at his companion and saw that his joke had no effect on him. Something was defiantly wrong. "Ok now your just scaring me. What's this all about?"

The other looked out over the horizon, desperately scanning for anything. "I don't know. I've just got this feeling that something about to happen."

He sighed and looked down at the ground, "The feeling's right there I just can't-"

A large flaming red dart shot from seemingly nowhere and sunk deep into the guard's stomach. He felt a searing, pain that felt as though hell itself had drove a pike thru his body and it's acid was eating through his fur and flesh until it would eat him alive from the inside out. The large red dart erupted into a inferno of flame and heat, ripping the guard roughly into quarters. His partner was drenched in hot blood as a ribcage flew past his head, nearly severing his head. Blood, bile, and scraps of organs oozed sickeningly from the great door and wall that the two were standing in front of.

"What the! Oh my god!" the other shrieked in horror as he saw pieces of his friend scattered helter-skelter across the ground, drenched with his own blood.

As he franticly scanned the area his eyes darting from limb to limb, arm to leg, head to half cooked brain, he saw before him a shorter figure, dressed in a purple robe with white pants and a large straw hat that cast a shade around his head so that the only thing visible was his large bright yellow eyes.

"W-W-What the hell are you?" he screamed at the strange figure.

The figure raised his hands at the terrified guard. Instincts took over the Burmecian and he charged for the strange creature.

"KILL!" the creature shouted with a voice as cold and as death himself. Energy began to accumulate in the hands of the small devil. Another large flaming dart shot from the figure's extended hands and sunk deep into the guard's shoulder.

"N-" was all that the Burmecian could manage to say before his head was blown across the ground like a watermelon that had just been obliterated with a sludge hammer.

He fell to the ground with a sickeningly wet thud at the feet of the mage as a shot of blood sprung out of what was left of his spine wetting the magus's boots. The sorcerer stood, cold and lifeless, like a doll. He had no life, and he had no idea what he had just taken from another living creature. Oblivious he stared straight, not looking in any other directions.

As the guard's arms rolled away from the remainder of his body and his brains began a slow descend down the cold stone wall the sounds of marching came from the Alexandrian lands and small glimmers of light descended from the heavens, as though the gods have come to weep. The soft lights came to rest on the grassy landscape and quickly turned into more of the devilish mages. Alexandria had come, though no one, not even the footmen marching toward the gate, weapons in hand and war in mind, knew


End file.
